By Mike Robuck
Verizon targets the right kind of partners
Enterprises are keen to modernise their workplace environments by tapping into 5G, cloud and edge compute, but Jennifer Artley, SVP, 5G Acceleration for Verizon Business, believes finding the right partners is crucial for success.
She said there are a vast number of system integrators and independent software vendors, along with several hyperscalers and OEMs to partner with.
“You can form countless combinations with each,” she said. “The key is to get the right ones together for the job. And we [Verizon] need to be agile to work in that ecosystem as well, while using our experience, expertise and scale to lead.”
In general, enterprises are looking for 5G products and services that are easy to use, capable, reliable, help drive revenue and optimal performance, Artley said.
The use case for deploying 5G in a stadium or arena might revolve around using crowd analytics to reduce traffic bottlenecks while enabling frictionless retail experiences.
“It's about making the venue more of a draw for fans and helping the operators improve their processes,” she explained.
For factories, warehouses or hospitals, pairing 5G with IoT can improve operational efficiency by connecting the customers’ asset pools to help them gain a better understanding of the performance.
“They can use IoT, 5G and edge compute with AI and computer vision to gather data from connected assets, process the data at the edge, and gain near real-time insights about performance and predictive maintenance events.”